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Tennis: Filip Peliwo now hunting bigger game after spectacular junior career

Filip Peliwo, the ITF world junior champion, proud of his stellar 2012 season but looking forward to life as a pro in 2013.

Canada's Filip Peliwo reached the final of all four junior Grand Slams, winning at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Daniel GirardSports Reporter

Sat., Dec. 15, 2012

Filip Peliwo had lofty goals at the outset of 2012. He wanted to be consistent, make a Grand Slam final and maybe sniff at being No. 1.

But even by the standards of a young man who has publicly stated he wants to be the best tennis player in the world, it’s been a truly remarkable year.

The 18-year-old from North Vancouver, B.C., reached the final of all four junior Grand Slams, winning at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He secured the world No. 1 ranking for under-19s and was named by Tennis Canada the most outstanding junior male and most improved male player.

“I never thought I would do that,” Peliwo said of becoming the first player to reach all four junior Grand Slam finals since Australian Mark Kratzmann had three wins and runner-up in 1984. “I was just as surprised as everyone.”

Peliwo, who began playing at age 4 on the public courts of B.C.’s Lower Mainland when he tagged along with his dad, this week became the first Canadian named a world champion by the International Tennis Federation.

Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams won the 2012 ITF senior titles.

“It’s amazing,” Peliwo said of the award. “Just to be in the same sentence as those guys is an honour and a great achievement for me. It’s a great feeling.”

Peliwo joins such legends as Ivan Lendl (1978), Stefan Edberg (1983), Roger Federer (1998), Andy Roddick (2000) and Gael Monfils (2004) in being named the ITF junior boys world champion since it began in 1978.

“I’m starting to realize what I’ve achieved exactly,” Peliwo said from Montreal, where he plays out of the national training centre. “I’m trying not to think of it as a guarantee for my future success but it’s definitely given me confidence for my future and it makes me want to work even harder.

“It shows me my goals are within reach if I just do the right things.”

His junior career behind him, Peliwo is embarking on the long climb up the rankings of the Association of Tennis Professionals. He’s 522nd on a list headed by Djokovic, himself a two-time Grand Slam winner in 2012.

By this time next year, Peliwo hopes to have cracked the top-300 with results on the lower-tier Futures and ATP Challenger Tours. He also wants to have at least competed in the qualifying of some of the main ATP events.

“It’s a long process to be on the top, so people have to be patient,” said Jocelyn Robichaud, one of two national team coaches for junior boys. “He might need two or three years to get in the top-50 but I think he’ll get there.”

Robichaud said Peliwo’s physical strengths are his great acceleration on the court and precise ground strokes. But the coach thinks he needs to improve his serve, which has been key in the race up the rankings for No. 13 Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., the top-ranked Canadian male singles player ever.

But one of the greatest attributes of Peliwo, who had an even better junior career than Raonic, 21, is the mental side of his game, Robichaud said.

“He reacts very well under pressure,” said Robichaud, who will travel with Peliwo to about two-thirds of the 25 or 30 tournaments he’s playing in 2013, with fellow junior boys national team coach Guillaume Marx at the rest.

“When it’s tight in matches, he’s still able to go for his shots and be aggressive instead of being passive and waiting for an opponent’s mistake. No matter what, he’s going to keep fighting. For him, a match is never over until he reaches across the net and shakes hands with the other guy.”

That mental toughness was on display in Peliwo’s two biggest wins of 2012.

At Wimbledon, having lost the previous Grand Slam finals in Australia and France, Peliwo fell behind 2-5 in the opening set before rebounding to take the next five games. In the second set, he erased an early break to win.

At the U.S. Open, Peliwo was tied 5-5 in the decisive third set but fell behind 0-40 to Liam Broady. The Canadian kept battling and eventually broke the Brit on his third chance before winning the title, 7-5, on his serve.

“This kid, as he now turns pro, we know he can handle pressure situations,” said Michael Downey, president of Tennis Canada, which will support Peliwo next season financially, managerially and with coaching. “And, I think at this level that’s half the game because they’re all great athletes.”

Peliwo, who moved from the West Coast to Montreal at age 15 to train, has hit regularly with Raonic and said the big Ontarian’s rise up the world rankings since turning pro in 2008 “gives me a lot of confidence.

“It just shows me I’ve got the same opportunity that he has,” Peliwo said. “I’ve just got to work hard to make sure I don’t waste it.”

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